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> Bamboo
Janet_Warburton
post Aug 1 2006, 06:28 PM
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Hi Misty!

Wow - bamboo on the Kuril Islands! I never knew that. Does anyone there know what the range of bamboo is? Are there any animals that eat the bamboo? Are you finding any pre-history evidence of people using the bamboo?

Your journals are great!
Take Care,
Janet
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Misty_Nikula_Ohlsen
post Aug 3 2006, 10:52 PM
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Janet
The bamboo here is different than I would have expected. Typically low - knee to waist high - but sometimes much higher - as much as 6 feet! The stalks tend to not be very thick, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 inch in diameter, but they are very tough and "woody" and difficult to cut without a sharpened shovel or clippers. They also have very tough and extensive root systems that extend fairly deep (15-30 centimeters) into the sandy soil. They make digging through the first layer of turf as well as walking through the underbrush extremely difficult. So far we have seen it growing in dense thickets and patches on the lower parts of hillsides and in valleys. it doesn't seem to matter if the ground is wetter or drier. In addition, very large pieces of bamboo - 10-15 cm in diameter and as hard as wood - can be found washed up on the beaches from other more tropical locations. Ben had told me that the bamboo only grows on the three southern islands (Kunashir, Iturup and Urup). It has not spread across the fairly large water span that divides Urup from Simushir. He also says that we do not have any evidence to tell us if the prehistoric peoples used bamboo or even that there was bamboo here during those time periods, yet. It would be difficult to find bamboo preserved in archaeological sites though it is possible that if there was the peoples that lived here used the stuff that grow here or the "drift-bamboo" that they could salvage. Pat Anderson's work looking at pollen from the lake core samples will tell us more about whether the bamboo grew here in prehistoric time periods. To my knowledge - and that of everyone that I have asked so far - there are no animals here that would eat the bamboo. There aren't any deer or other similar animals on the Kurils, whatsoever, and certainly no Pandas. smile.gif
Misty
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